Gaffer: Good Ol' Rock & Roll

Gaffer gaf·fer (gfr)n.1. An electrician in charge of lighting on a movie or television set.2. Chiefly British An old man or a rustic.3. Chiefly British A boss or foreman. In our case, The Gaffer is a four piece San Diego band that consists of high school buddies just doing what they love to do, play music. I was honored to have been a guest at their most recent show on May 26th at The Griffin and can honestly say I truly enjoyed myself, the music, and the people. I met with The Gaffer before the show and was thrilled to do a live interview with three of the four members, Martin Coughlin, singer/songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist; Dave O’Reily, lead guitarist and background vocals; and the bassist, Scott Mitchell.

T: On behalf of Tunage Magazine, Thank you so much for taking the time before your show to do an interview with me. It really is very much appreciated. Can you tell me a little bit about yourselves? Who do you sound like? Martin: I think the sound is a little bit of a mix between Zeppelin and OasisT: Who are some of your influences? Dave: My influences range anywhere from Led Zeppelin to Pink Floyd to Bad Religion Scott: I like Iron Maiden

T: Are you originally from San Diego or do you travel from afar? I detect a couple of accents from two of you.

M: I’m originally from Scotland, but I’ve lived in San Diego for a long time. I’ve been here since 1988, but I’ve been back and forth over the years.

D: I was born in Texas and I’ve been here since 1992.

S: I was born in England and I live in L.A now.

M: Every year Scott gets older his accent gets worse.

T: So what brought you guys together as a band? Have you been playing together for a long time? S: He used to beat me up all the time (points at Martin) and then he made me learn to play the bass. It was kind of like a Michael Jackson deal. If I wanted any playing time, I had to learn to play the bass. M: Scoot and I were in a band together for a long time. I have two other brothers and the four of us were in a band in the late 90’s early 2000’s. Then we hadn’t played together in a long time. We’ve all been friends for years we went to high school together. Then in about 2010 I started putting some demos together and brought both Dave and Scott in to play. That was the beginning; it was the genesis of this band.T: This general band lineup has been the original lineup from the start? The Gaffer: Pretty much, yeah. The drummer situation is one where we brought in different guys, and now we currently have Danny.T: How long have you all been playing your instruments? D: I started playing piano at the age of twelve and then between fourteen and fifteen I started to pick up the guitar. M: For me it was the opposite. I started playing the guitar when I was fifteen and later started on the piano. S: I started with the guitar, but I couldn’t play it, so I switched to four strings because it was going to be easier.T: Who are some of your biggest influences? TG: Led Zeppelin, Bad Religion, Oasis, Pink Floyd, The Beatles to name a few. T: Who else are you guys playing with this evening? Have you played at The Griffin before? TG: Well, we’ve got The Gift/Curse whom we’ve known for a long time. We go back about fifteen years or so. Danny the drummer is also playing with us tonight. The other two bands are The Elephant Project and Manifold. We don’t know too much about them, but we’ve heard of them. We have player here before and actually, the last time we were here at The Griffin, we played with The Gift/Curse as well. They’re an awesome band to play with.T: Do you have any tours or shows that you would like to promote? TG: No tours are planned right now, but we do have an EP called Occupy Yourself. We’re really selective on when and where we play our shows. We’re normal everyday guys and lead everyday lives. Two of us our teachers and we have kids and typical family things that we have to do. T: Tell me about how you wrote “Occupy Yourself”. M: I was in very much inspired by the whole Occupy Movement, so that’s basically where it came from.T: Once again, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me and letting our readers get to know you better. We’ll be looking forward to your next show, an album release and please keep us updated on a possible tour. If you would like to know more about The Gaffer at their Facebook page and pick up an EP by attending a show or simply emailing them for details. Tunage will keep our readers posted on their shows, merch, and any new album developments.- Tunage